History is an excellent antidote for hysteria. All the huffing and puffing over the Bush Administration's firing of eight U.S. Attorneys might be tempered by an awareness that Bush's predecessor, President Bill Clinton, summarily fired all 93 U.S. Attorneys on a single day, March 23, 1993. (1) (2)

Why the Clinton Administration initiated this unprecedented purge has never been adequately investigated. For the convenience of future historians, we offer here a full list of the 93 U.S. Attorneys whose resignations the Clinton administration demanded:

3. For a full listing of U.S. Attorneys, district by district, from 1784 to 1994, see: Richard A. Hertling, Acting Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice: Office of Legislative Affairs, letter to The Honorable John Conyers, Jr. and The Honorable Linda Sanchez, 5 March 2007 (download pdf file)

I hope this list inspires others to take the research to the next level. Many questions cry out for exploration. For instance, what cases were the fired U.S. Attorneys working on? Why did so many of their Clinton-appointed replacements serve such a short time, before being replaced in turn? And so forth.

Not all 93 USAs were fired by Clinton. Some USA seats were already being held by temporary appointments, and as your chart suggests, some Bush-appointed USAs were ultimately allowed to serve past that day in March 1993. In fact, as your chart shows, John Raley from the Eastern District of Oklahoma was reappointed to his post by President Clinton.

Not all 93 USAs were fired by Clinton. ... The number of Clinton-fired Bush appointees was likely about 70.

As I understand it, Janet Reno demanded resignations from all 93 U.S. Attorneys, but did not accept every resignation tendered, in obedience to her order. Some U.S. Attorneys were left in place -- on a probationary basis, one might say.

From the NY Times of March 26, 1992: "Any hope that the Clinton Administration would operate a Justice Department free of political taint -- or even the appearance of political taint -- grew dim yesterday when the White House confirmed that it would dismiss the U.S. Attorney investigating one of its chief Congressional allies." (Rostenkowski)

And by the way, when is Congress looking into cases where partisan politics played a role in false indictments, say, that of Majority Leader Tom DeLay?

12
posted on 04/14/2007 1:13:51 PM PDT
by Liberty Wins
(Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of all who threaten these.)

As best I can tell, 35 Clinton-appointed U.S. Attorneys left office during the Clinton years (including one Clinton re-appointee from the Bush I administration). Of the 35:

7 left to become federal judges; 2 left for other jobs in the Clinton administration; 1 left to become an immigration judge (N.D.CA USA Yamaguchi - under circumstances very similar to Bush N.D.CA USA Ryan); 7 left to run for elective office (including 1 who ultimately ran for NYS judge); 13 left to go into private practice or non-elected public service; 2 retired; 1 joined the office of special counsel investigating Waco; and 2 left because they assaulted someone (Colleton/Coffey).

6 of the Clinton Appointees resigned in August-October of 1997 to retire or enter private practice. These included:

1) Frederick W. Thieman (W.D.PA) (8/1/97). He had just indicted some bigwig Democrat donors on 7/18/97; 2) Kent B. Alexander (N.D.GA) (8/15/97). He was responsible for prosecuting the Centennial Olympic Bombing case; 3) John W. Raley, Jr. (E.D.OK) (8/15/97). Raley was a George H.W. Bush appointee who was reappointed by Clinton. He supposedly retired; 4) James B. Burns (N.D.IL) (8/20/97); 5) Patrick H. NeMoyer (9/26/97). He ultimately ended up running for NYS Supreme Court - in 1998 (which, despite the name, is our lowest state court, one step above city and town courts); and 6) Gaynelle Griffin Jones (10/10/97). According to some reports, she may have been subject to an internal DOJ probe regarding her handling of local investigations.

I have no proof that any of the six were forced out, but isn't it a bit strange that they all left about the same time, which also happened to be around the time some of their terms were going to expire?

As I understand it, Janet Reno demanded resignations from all 93 U.S. Attorneys, but did not accept every resignation tendered, in obedience to her order. Some U.S. Attorneys were left in place -- on a probationary basis, one might say.

Some of the U.S. Attorneys were court-appointed temporary replacements whose resignations probably couldn't be forced. Not every USA position was filled with a political appointee in March 1993.

Eric H. Holder, Jr., for the District of Columbia Michael Joseph Yamaguchi for the Northern District of California Randall K. Rathbun for the District of Kansas Thomas Justin Monaghan for the District of Nebraska Stephen Charles Lewis for the Northern District of Oklahoma Vicki Miles-LaGrange for the Western District of Oklahoma John W. Raley, Jr. for the Eastern District of Oklahoma Frederick W. Theiman for the Western District of Pennsylvania

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